The Alberta 2023 budget has been released and Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland says he wishes the government would put money into highway 28.
The province is budgeting $2.3 billion over three years for projects and programs that expand and improve Alberta’s road and bridge network but Cold Lake’s Mayor Craig Copeland is concerned highway 28 is not part of that list. The Cold Lake Mayor says highway 28 is invisible to the government.
“Once again highway 28 does not seem to be in the vision of the government for the next three years. That is very concerning. In our opinion it is unacceptable. I think the province needs to come in and revisit highway 28 in a big way.”
Copeland says the province needs to step in and put millions of dollars into the road with passing lanes and sections to be twinned.
“When you consider the Carbon Capture with the big modules that are going to have to be moved on site for the Carbon Capture. They are going to have to come off highway 36 and onto highway 28 and that is just a goat path.”
Copeland says it is long overdue as the Lakeland sits and watches other highways get work done in the province.
“We have been a forgotten highway for years and it is a safety concern. We may not have the population up here like highway 11 does out of the Red Deer area that is getting funded but we are producing such an enormous wealth for the province and for this country and for no one to come in and invest in our area so it is a safe place for families to live and for goods to be transported and to move back and forth is just unacceptable.”
The amount of money Copeland wants invested into the highway totals millions of dollars. The 2023 provincial budget was released on February 28th and is available on the province’s website.